WEALTH
EXPOSED
THIS SHORT ARGUMENT
| OVERHEARD MADE
TOP SEC CRET]
SAME FOR YOU?
A SHORT STORY BY her sas
AUTHOR FTE (TEE ATIC NAL BES SELLER
THE 1 WILLE unpee! ASTLAM!
Wealth Exposed
This Short Argument | Overheard
Made Me A Fortune... Can It Do The
Same For You?
MJ DeMarco
Viperion Publishing Corp.
Copyright © 2020 MJ DeMarco
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are based on a true story.
However, names, likenesses, and similarities have been altered to prevent any
identification to the real persons, living or dead. Any similarity to any one
person, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Cover design by: Viperion Corporation
Printed in the United States of America
Dedicated to the man or woman who desires more than a job, a
weekend, and an elderly promise called "retirement." Make it happen!
The Eighteen Minutes That
Changed My Life The First Meeting...
If your life needs a course-correction for fortune and the
freedom that comes with it, the next eighteen-minutes
might be your jerk at the wheel. It was mine. True story. Well
not entirely, names and descriptions have been changed to
protect the innocent.
So, if you’re ready to confront yourself with the hard
questions, congratulations: you’re ready to confront the
comfort—the comfort that keeps you comfortably mediocre
among the ninety-nine percent (99%).
For me, it was Deja-vu.
Over a decade earlier, a short encounter with a
multimillionaire changed my life. A young man driving a
Lamborghini Countach admitted to my teenage self that he
was an entrepreneur, specifically an inventor. That chance
meeting set me on the path to be an entrepreneur, a career
choice | made early in life.
More than ten years later, another “encounter” with a multi-
millionaire would once again, change the trajectory of my
life. Except this time, he wouldn't steer me toward a career,
he would tell me how to succeed at it. And calling it an
“encounter” would be deceptive. | witnessed the event as
an unwitting eavesdropper.
It was 1996. Or maybe 1995. I’m not sure. But | was sure |
was already five business failures deep and hopelessly
circling the drain. In other words, | was two arsenic pills
away from meeting my maker or spending an eternity as a
fool.
After many years as a struggling entrepreneur, | was now
twenty-five years old— a broke nobody working fare-to-fare
in a meaningless job as a limousine chauffeur for a small
company in Chicago. The hours were long and the pay
insulting. The job, however, gave me some latitude to
pursue my entrepreneurial dreams, and by all measures,
keep the failures growing. Yes, the confidence was gone.
Worse, my seemingly insurmountable credit card debt was a
monthly reminder of those failures: a failed jewelry
business, a failed audio business, and a failed importing
business. All had left their scars on MasterCard and Visa.
Meanwhile, my friends and college peers were living the
high life: they had decent jobs as sales representatives and
assistant managers, they drove new Acura’s and Audi’s,
some, even mortgaged new homes.
One afternoon | was dispatched on an airport transport for a
new customer from Barrington Hills, an affluent Chicago
Suburb home to many athletes and CEOs. The name Gary
Patel, however, didn’t imply quarterback, it implied
neurosurgeon, or businessman who owned a chain of 7-
Elevens. Sorry, this was before political incorrectness was
politically incorrect.
Once my credentials were approved by the guard stationed
at the gated entrance, | drove in. The scene was colorfully
idyllic and appeared staged— like a Hollywood set. Towering
oak trees canopied a pristinely manicured road ornamented
by a lush lagoon with spouting fountains. If there was a lawn
uncut, a shrub untrimmed, or a flower unbloomed, | didn’t
see it. The road escorted me to a contemporary estate that
looked like a giant kidney bean made of steel. Paneled in
glass and columned in girders, a large portico loomed out
from the main structure overshadowing a large circular
drive. One hundred-percent Tony Stark, zero-percent Dr.
Patel. As | pulled into the driveway, a white convertible
Ferrari stood sentry underneath the portico, an unstated
proclamation that “power” does indeed, live here.
| exited my limousine and rang the doorbell expecting a
grand serenade of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Instead | heard a
standard *ding*, the same tone of my mother’s home, the
home | still resided within at the generous age of twenty-
five.
The door opened and a smiling young man with long hair
and cowboy boots stood before me. Not Axle Rose hair, but
Michael Bolton. If you’re too young and don't know who that
is, think Yanni, but frizzy and receding. Don’t know Yanni
either? Ugh, how about Fabio? Don’t know him either? OK,
perhaps my audience is younger than | thought. Think Jared
Leto, but permed, sun-dried, and ridiculously garish— even
for the early nineties.
So back to Gary.
This distinguished man of Indian descent in my mind was
nowhere to be found. Instead, this guy looked and dressed
like one my college buddies blitzed on four highballs while
two-stepping at country bar. All that was missing was his
blue eyes and his girlfriend Reba. Two suitcases sat stacked
behind him.
“Mr., uh, Patel? Gary?” | asked.
The young man smiled. “Yes.”
My mind betrayed my face and flared confusion. Gary
astutely noticed and said, “Expecting someone else?”
| smile sheepishly but say nothing. He continues, “Don’t
worry about it. In twenty-years we might not be able to
discuss stereotypes like this, so better get it out of our
system.” He gestures to his bags. “Just two.” His voice was
more Chicago over Texas, firmly baritone and didn't offer
insight if he was gardening or roping steer on the weekend.
After depositing Gary at Terminal One at O'Hare Airport, |
hurriedly returned to the livery holding area and parked. |
picked up my brick phone, a technological marvel at the
time, and called Stanford, my boss. He owned the company
and was a displaced Londoner who had hoped his British
accent would be well-received by Chicagoans in the people-
moving trade. It was—business was booming. | asked,
“Who's this rich guy | just dropped off? His parents own that
place?”
“No,” Stanford said flatly, “he’s the CEO of an administrative
staffing company.”
| narrow my eyes, befuddled. | clarify, “Like a temp
agency?” | calculate the disconnect and don’t allow Stanford
to confirm. “So, his parents own the business?”
Stanford muses, “Bollocks, how the hell do you think | know
this? I’m not the Daily Mirror.”
Having never heard of the Daily Mirror, | assume it’s a
British-based business magazine featuring esteemed
businessmen. | profess whimsically, “Sorry Stan, your royal
accent has a way of getting people to talk to you. You have
the gift of gab and you like knowing who’s riding in your
limo. | just assumed.”
Stanford laughed. Then, “Well, he ventured nothing about
his background.” A pause. Then a trailing, “But...”
“But what?” | interjected.
“| did a search on the chap and found a few stories about
him and his operation. Said he started his company at Uni,
dropped out by his junior year to pursue it full-time. His
adoptive parents didn't fancy his entrepreneuring, sounded
like a bunch of bloody toffs if ya ask me. Fought him tooth
and nail on it. Wanted him to be a surgeon. He wanted to be
a businessman. When he refused, his parents sacked all
Support, emotionally and financially. Even mentioned they
went back to Mumbai.”
A pause followed by lip smacking. | wondered what type of
grease Stan was inhaling, KFC or McDonalds. Stanford’s idea
of nutrition was a strawberry donut. Once the chewing
subsided, he continued, “Said he had to put himself through
Uni, worked odd jobs, did a lot of couch surfing. You'd fancy
the tale. So no, his parents don’t muck in his business. The
house, the Ferrari, it’s all his.”
The silence hung until | thought “Damn” which | accidentally
uttered. “Yeah bloody so,” Stanford scoffs. “If you weren’t
such a tosser, you probably could learn a thing or two from
him.”
With my narrative spanked, | sat muzzled. Stan was right. It
was Deja-vu and reminded me of my Lamborghini Countach
encounter. When that man _ revealed he was. an
entrepreneur, it left me speechless. Even after that event
(and now this one) | still expected these visual embodiments
of wealth to be a product of luck, celebrity, rich parents, or
some other divine intervention. Why couldn’t | accept the
truths that kept assaulting my eyes, and my ego?
Unlike Gary, my family never abandoned me. Sure, they
doubted me with a snicker or a smirk, or a random jeer to
“get a job baby!” but that was the extent of their opposition.
The truth was, | was spending a considerable amount of
mental gymnastics to justify my business failures. My ego
wanted to believe that “Gary” was born into fortune or fell
into some business empire. But after Stanford read me the
article about Gary, | soon realized that my situation was less
tenuous and more opportunistic than Gary's. In other words,
| had no excuse other than my own incompetence.
| chauffeured Gary a few other times that year, a ride to the
airport, a dinner here or there. Each time Gary hired my
limousine, | ached to talk to him. | plotted for a
conversational opening. Could he give this struggling
entrepreneur some candid advice? Would he meet me for
coffee? Would he mentor me if | asked?
Unfortunately, no such conversation would happen. | was
forced to follow Etiquette 101 for chauffeuring: Never talk to
the client unless spoken to. And “United Airlines, terminal
one” isn’t exactly an open invitation for an impromptu
interview.
But my luck would soon change.
The Wealth Altercation
It was Friday night and my client was Gary and his two
friends. A night on the town. As the evening grinded after
midnight, | collected Gary and his group from G/bson’s, a
swanky Chicago steakhouse. As they stepped off the curb
and clamored into the limousine like rambunctious
teenagers, it only took one mirrored glimpse to assess their
sobriety: They were lit. Heads were floppy, eyes glossy, and
speech slurry.
Gary lounged himself in the rear seat, legs fully
extended, his two arms clasped behind his head as if he just
finished the best sex of his life. His friends quickly corralled
themselves toward the front of the limousine adjacent to the
open privacy window, mere inches from my ears. | peeked
at the man to my right and could see he was a George
Clooney wannabe sporting a perfectly tailored suit to
complement his closely cropped dark hair and steely jaw.
Clooney’s head nearly touched the cushioned ceiling. My
guess basketball was part of his life, and if it wasn’t, the
Chicago Bulls were missing out. A five o’clock shadow
finished the look, completing every woman’s dream of “tall,
dark, and handsome.”
Seated behind me was Gary’s other friend who | couldn’t
see well, but | could smell: He must have bathed in the
Drakkar Noir earlier that night. The scent reminded me of
my last boss who also likened the cologne to holy water.
Before | started the return journey back to the South Loop,
my first stop, | opened the glovebox. “Darn it,” | mouthed to
myself realizing | was out of air fresheners. | flipped the box
closed and merged into traffic, carefully avoiding Division
Street and the drunken revelers sure to be loitering about.
After | heard a few beers fizz open, Clooney chimed in, “So
sixty-fucking-million dollars, how’s it feel man? You on top of
the world?”
Gary straightened from his lounge and grinned. “To be
honest, | don’t feel any different.” He turned and nodded at
Drakkar. “You know | had that place running on auto-pilot.”
Drakkar laughed. “Yea, and you left me to fend with the
jackals.”
| saw Gary lilt his head then smile, almost embarrassingly.
“C’mon Jeff, you know | made them revise your employment
contract to be virtually unfuckable. And if they do mess with
you, well...” Gary smirked and reached in his jacket. “This
Should help.” | kept my glance in my mirror and saw Gary
lean forward and hand Drakkar an envelope.
| refocused back to my drive, navigating north, a detour to
help me bypass the bars and clubs. My first stop would be
Canal Street, Clooney’s residence.
It starts to rain. Darn it. Between the windshield wipers and
the plinking of the rain, eavesdropping just became harder. |
barely heard the envelope tear open.
Drakkar gasped, eyes welling. “Oh my God are you serious?
Two million dollars?”
Gary clasped his hands between his knees and gleamed a
Sly smile. “Serious. That’s for helping me the last 5 years. |
know | haven’t been a walk in the park. That’s for all the
times you went above and beyond your duty, from the late-
night calls, to covering for me when | was hospitalized.”
The sound of rain against steel consumes the hanging
silence. In the corner of my eye | see Drakkar grab a tissue
then wipe face. He sniffles then says, “Gary, you have no
idea how much this means.” Another wipe of his nose then
he scoots to the back of the limousine and gives Gary a
manly embrace followed by two big pats to his shoulder.
“This will forever change my family’s life. Thank you so
much.”
Drakkar returns to his seat, still glaring at the check. Gary
says, “No, thank you Jeff. You’ve helped me change my life.
I’m not sure | could have done this without your loyalty. You
deserve that.”
Clooney leers at Drakkar, eyes gaped and quips, “For fuck’s
sake. | Knew | should have taken that job before he offered it
to you.”
His remark takes me by surprise. His tone is not of joy for
his friend, but of resentment. He continues, refocusing to
Gary, “What about me? I’ve been your wingman since
college. | was there when you came up the idea for your
business. Even gave you some feedback on it.” | shifted my
eyes to my right-side mirror and saw Clooney’s jaw tighten
and lips purse. He took a quick drink of his beer then let it
rip: “You gonna make me a multi-millionaire? | helped you
with the idea!”
While | wasn’t privy to Gary’s relationships, | could tell
something was sour. | wasn’t sure if this was drunken
courage or something simmering that just blew.
Gary eased back into his seat and extended his arm on top
of the seat-back. His cheeks tightened. He narrowed his
eyes as if he just caught his child in a lie. Gone was the
graciousness. He scoffed, tone icy, “Excuse me? You helped
with the idea? You mean we discussed it for ten minutes and
then you disappeared. C’mon Kody, ideas ain’t worth a piss.
You should know better. And instead of working on that idea
with me, what did you do? You took the safe route and the
guaranteed paycheck. And when | got the ball rolling, |
made sure | didn’t forget you. | offered you a job and you
declined. In effect, | eliminated most of the risk, but you
wanted the big benefits package and the plush downtown
office.”
He paused and took a quick swig of his beer. After smacking
his lips, he firmly said, “You made choices that flaunted a
lifestyle over what was possible in the long-term.”
Gary gestures to Drakkar. “Jeff did not.”
The bitterness is uncomfortably palpable. | reposition my
driving stature and act like I’m navigating the separation of
the Red Sea. A muscle in Clooney’s jaw twitches, a vein
swells in his neck. He snarls, “Well, had | known a multi-
million-dollar payoff was gonna happen, | would’ve accepted
your job offer.”
“Ah yes, hindsight.” Gary sighs and then continues, “Listen
Kory, you remember in college when we’d dream about
starting a business, controlling our destiny, and living a
rockstar life?” Clooney remained silent. “Remember nights
at the student union when we both brainstormed business
ideas and said we’d ‘get rich and die trying’?”
“Of course, | remember. It was only a few years ago.”
“Well what changed?” Gary asked. “Because | don’t see any
om
‘die trying’.
Another uncomfortable silence followed by a rake through
his hair. Then, “My parents wanted me to get a job. And you
didn’t wait to start a business. You did it as soon as the
opportunity was there. By the time | graduated, you had
already dropped out and had the business up and running. |
had to find a job and the job you offered didn’t pay enough.”
“And WHY did you pick the job that paid, what, $6,000 more
per year?”
| peeked at my right mirror to change lanes and caught
Clooney’s head hung to the floor. Perhaps he expected a
windfall like his friend, but instead was blindsided with a
“come to Jesus” moment. He returned his gaze back to Gary
and confessed, “Your job paid much less than what was
offered to me. | had rent and car payments to make. The
student loans were also due. And then | got engaged and
was planning a wedding. | needed all the money | could
earn. Six grand was a lot.”
“Your old beat up Civic that ran forever had a car payment?”
“No, you know | got rid of that. My Corvette.”
“Ahh, and what great accomplishment did you achieve to
deserve a Corvette?”
“C’mon man, | just graduated.” Clooney said sheepishly, “1
thought | deserved it.”
“Like you deserved that loft on Canal Street?”
Another exasperated sigh from Clooney.
“So, Kody, while you were styling in your Corvette at your
brand-new loft with stone countertops, | was driving an old
PT Cruiser and living in that ratty apartment over in Cicero.
And then you had that big wedding at Navy Pier. I’m
guessing you're still paying for that huh?” | hear Gary snuff
in disbelief. He continues, “I made sacrifices THEN so | can
have this NOW. You didn’t. You played it safe. You focused on
an image; | focused on a company.”
Damn. If | had a mic, l’d drop it. | try to maintain my
composure as if I’m hearing nothing.
Clooney shifts in his seat, obviously miffed at the double
whammy: His two buddies are now rich and he’s being
called out. “Look Gary, you’re right,” he says. “I’m happy
you sold your company and are killing it. It’s just hard to
accept because | was there when we wrote down these
ideas and you gave me the chance to be a partner.”
“Yes, and | didn’t even ask you to dropout like | did. You got
your degree and your so-called safety net.”
“| know. And then you offered me Jeff’s job after | graduated.
And like an idiot, | declined.”
Clooney slammed his beer in the cup holder. | then heard
plastic being crushed. A red Solo cup was losing its life. “1
fucking blew it. Twice.”
Gary leaned forward and nodded at Drakkar. “Pay attention
Jeff, because this is for you too.” He returned to Clooney and
asked, “Do you still have a dream of running your own
business? Earning what you're worth? Writing your own
story? Because from what I’ve seen, you don’t.”
Clooney remained stiff and stone-faced, saying nothing.
Gary continued, “You know better than anyone: You can’t
set yourself free working a normal job.” Gary snickered and
grinned at Drakkar, “Well, not unless you’re in the inner
circle of a startup.”
He shifted back to Clooney and continued “...but the
bottom-line is, you sold out your dreams for a damn car and
a weekend. You've traded it in for a $3,000 suit and a soul-
sucking marriage that will never deliver freedom, financial
or otherwise.”
Clooney raised his voice, objecting. “Hey, wait a sec, | love
my wife.”
“I’m not talking about your marriage with Lori, I’m talking
about your marriage with time and shitty math.”
Clooney groaned.
Gary groaned back rhetorically, then shifted forward closing
the space between them. He leered in, “So, how much
money have you made tonight?”
He glowered at the window, avoiding Gary’s gaze. He
reported, “Nothing, | didn’t work tonight.”
“Exactly, you’re fucking married to time. If you don’t work,
you don’t make a dime.” Gary fanned his hands in the air
showcasing the limousine and continued, “If you want to get
rich like we talked about in college, you need to get
divorced from time.”
Clooney scoffs incredulously. “How can you say that? You
worked your ass off for years and never took a break, never
a vacation; you disappeared for months on end, how is that
divorced from time?”
“Yea, | busted my balls in those early years because | was
working the long-game and manipulating the math. | knew |
was building a system that would not only pay me money, it
would eventually pay me time. And after a few years of hard
sacrifices, that started to happen. The math started to
change and it required less of my time.”
Drakkar interrupted the exchange, his first words since
becoming a multimillionaire. “You mean when you promoted
me to General Manager, and | ran your company for the last
few years?”
“Yes.” Gary nodded, “And then we started scaling to more
customers. There are over fifty million clients we can serve,
and once we systematized our hiring process, the money
started rolling in. And ever since the company foundation
was built, I’ve been on the clock making money, 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week, every single day of the year. That’s how
you get rich, being 'on the clock' perpetually, 168 hours a
week, not fucking 40.”
Gary cracked open the window. He reached into his pocket
and pulled out a cigar. “Did you know my company is
providing staffing for over thirty companies tonight? That
means the new owners will make over $10,000 just this
night alone. Their paycheck never stops coming because
they’re divorced from time thanks to the system | built. And
not only that, my service is not hamstrung by bad math—it
can be sold repeatedly, over and over. You can’t do that with
a damn paycheck.”
Drakkar interjected rhetorically. “Right, because you can’t
scale time. There are only so many hours or years you can
work in a given lifetime.”
“Exactly.”
Gary fiddled with the cigar between his fingers.
“| got rich not because of my idea, but because | used
that idea to proactively change the numbers in my life. It
changed the probability and physics in my work; made it
receptive for a fortune. | don’t care how smart you are or
how hard you work— you can’t get rich in a job where time
is a handcuff. It’s like planting Michael Jordan in concrete
and expecting him to.
dunk. Only a business system with the right math can
break you out of that muck.”
“Like a code,” Drakkar adds nodding his head.
Clooney smugly interrupts, “I Know this. We talked about
this in college, years ago.”
“Yes, you talked, but not acted. You’ve clearly forgotten. And
then done shit about it.”
“But you sold the business. So now you're not earning
money twenty-four-seven like you claim.”
Gary laughed gregariously.
“Kody, I’m worth $90 million dollars. | don’t need to work
another day in my life. And not only that, thanks to
municipal bonds, dividend stocks, real estate trusts, and US
Treasuries, I'll earn a paycheck for life, much of it tax-free.
And even if that fails, I’m still set for life.”
Another glance in my right-side mirror and | could see
Clooney had taken a childlike defensive posture; arms
crossed, brow needled. As for Drakkar behind me, | assumed
he glowed and grinned ear-to-ear, he just became a
multimillionaire ten minutes earlier. It was an odd scene,
two men were on Cloud Nine, one was sucking dirt. | hung a
left on LaSalle, which was still heavy with traffic.
“Look man, this isn’t rocket science. Build something.
Anything. | don’t care what it is. Your system could be a
book, a piece of software, a board game, an invention, a
scalable service, even grandpa's secret recipe for barbecue
Sauce; it doesn’t really matter as long as people find it
valuable and you can replicate it by the thousands. And
then sell the shit out of it. And if it doesn’t work, try again.
And again. The expected value of one success is being set
for life. I’ll help you any way I can.”
He pauses then points his unlit cigar toward the two men,
“And this internet thing that is getting popular...” He taps
Clooney on the knee. “...in a few years, that’s going to be
huge. Trust me. Millions are going to make millions of
dollars. Some billions.”
“The internet?” Clooney sneers. “You mean that AOL thing
my niece is always chatting on?” He fingers his chin, then, “1
doubt it. It’s for kids and nerds. Like my niece.”
Gary pursed his lips. “Careful,” he mused in a tone that
stunk of caution. He flipped his lighter and finally torched up
the cigar. Stan wouldn't like it; smoking was against policy.
But then again, he’d hate losing Gary’s patronage more. |
said nothing while cigar smoke wafted into my nose. It
smelled expensive.
Gary took another savory drag and then said, “When one
Opportunity passes, another is always waiting. Change is
universal. And millionaires are created when we change with
change. I’m telling you; this internet thing is going to be big.
Probably bigger than anything we’ve ever seen.”
Now at a red light, | kept my eyes spied on the rear cab.
Clooney, or Kody, sat uncomfortably silent.
“The internet,” Gary stated flatly gazing at the ceiling. “Yes,
that’s going to be the next big thing.”
The rain intensified and a few blocks passed in relative
silence other than the exhales of cigar smoke and plinking
rain. The last fifteen minutes was a lot to process, but |
made sure to catalogue it into long-term memory. If Clooney
wouldn’t heed the advice, | would as an_ innocent
eavesdropper.
Gary started again, continuing his tenderization of the
Subject. “Kody, think about what we've talked about here.
Think about the dream you promised yourself to pursue.” He
gestures to Drakkar, “I’ve told him the same thing.”
Clooney scoffs. “You just gave Jeff two million dollars. He can
afford to take risks now, how can |? | can’t afford to go
without a paycheck for a year, let alone a few weeks.”
Gary shakes his head disapprovingly. “You just have to make
the sacrifices. Figure out what’s important to you, your
comfort? Or your dream? All your illusions of success, this
facade—” He waves his hand at his expensive suit, “—it’s
smothering your options. | didn’t buy my first sports car
until | was a millionaire. You did it to lipstick your student
loans. Starting a business is never easy, but with all the
lifestyle you’ve got to support, you’ll never take the risks.”
“I’m not sure the wife and | are ready for that.” Clooney said
deftly, now realizing a $2 million dollar windfall wouldn't be
coming his way.
A thunderclap menacingly ripped overhead. The sudden
boom caused me to jump, jerking the limo abruptly. Drakkar
flashed me a douchebag look, as if it was intentional. “Sorry
folks,” | muttered. “The storm is getting worse.” Both
literally and figuratively | thought.
Gary said, “Kode...” regaining Clooney’s attention. “I’m not
trying to piss you off. I'd hope if the situation was reversed,
you'd tell me the same thing. You were clear about what you
wanted from life. You need to refocus. You’ve sold your
dream for a paycheck and weekend.” He teasingly tapped
him again on the knee. “And that’s OK, most people are fine
having Saturday and Sunday as the payment for Monday
through Friday. Our society is built on dead dreams. You can
build the cog or be the cog.”
He nailed another drag on his Davidoff and whooshed the
smoke out the crack of the window. Another boom of
thunder. | turned on Canal Street, seconds from Clooney’s
apartment. Gary continued staring down his friend. “We’re
still plenty young. Five years from now when you're in your
thirties, you could be sitting in my place. You just got to
make a damn decision and do it.”
Clooney shook his head, “What, so | should quit my job and
start an internet business?” A vein bulged on his temple.
“That’s insane.”
The statement lingers through the cab.
Gary rolls his eyes.
“Damn it, would you stop being so dense?” After an
exasperated exhale, he affirms, “No, you don’t have to quit
your job. I’m just saying resurrect your dream. Pursue it like
it mattered, like it mattered more than a damn car or a
baseball game.”
| pull to the curb, outside of Clooney’s residence. | exit the
limo in the drizzling rain and open the curbside door.
Clooney slithers out and nods toward Gary. “I'll give it some
thought.” he says half-heartedly. I’m standing outside
waiting for the conversation to end. Waiting to close the
door. Waiting to spare myself from the rain chilling my face.
Inside the limo, Gary shakes his head like a disappointed
father. “Going to make it three times?”
“Three times? What?”
Gary leers his head toward the open door. “Ten minutes ago,
you said you blew it. Twice. You had an opportunity to
partner with me, and then you had the opportunity to join
my company as the General Manager. You said you blew it
twice and now here you are, standing in the rain wallowing
in regret. And just like tonight, back then you said, and |
quote,” he fingers the quotes, “‘I’ll give it some thought’. So
again Kody, are you going to blow it again and regret this
moment for the rest of your life just like the other two?
Because from where | sit, you are.”
Clooney straightens up and flashes me a sympathetic glare
as if | might be on his team. Sorry asshole, I’m not; I’m on
Team Gary. His face flushes red when | ignore him. He shifts
back at Gary and shakes his head into the open door, his
grimace telegraphing daggers.
“Spare me the lecture Gary. You sit there and act like you’re
some grand master businessman, but when it all comes
down to it, you’re just one lucky son-of-a-bitch. Not all of us
have a four-leaf clover jammed up our ass.” He slams the
door out of my hands and flashes a condescending wave of
goodbye toward the tinted window, storming off.
Yikes. My eyes pop like saucers. Once | return to the limo,
Gary says nothing, but | hear a mechanical hum. | peek at
my overhead mirror and my suspicions were confirmed: the
privacy window was rising to a close. In seconds, my night
of eavesdropping would be over.
Before the window closes, Gary rings my ear one last
time.
After exhaling another cloud of smokey tobacco, he says
to Drakkar, “And that my friend, is why Kody will never
amount to anything, nothing but a basic pencil pusher in an
overpriced three-piece suit— millionaire bark, dime-store
bite.”
Epilogue
This short tale is based upon a true story. Gary was real. As
a limousine chauffeur in the city of Chicago in my early
twenties (while suffering as a failed entrepreneur), |
routinely overheard conversations from multimillionaires.
Those conversations helped me to go on to become a
multimillionaire myself.
While I’ll never know if Clooney took Gary’s advice, | did.
That year I’d start an internet business and move to Arizona
to pursue my dream, or as Gary said, to “resurrect” it. And
in just a few short years later I’d go on to sell my company
(twice) and retire decades early. In my “retirement” (a word
not to mean “golf courses” or “bridge” but to signify a new
writing career liberated from stuffy publishing houses) I’d go
on to write several books espousing the “tough love”
business advice | overheard.
| never forgot my desperation back in my youth, the
desperation of wanting to be mentored by someone like
Gary. The desperation of needing someone who would give
me the “third degree” and tell me everything that | needed
to hear, but feared to acknowledge.
My gift to the world is that conversation with my younger
self—and to you. I’ve written several books to honor Gary
and his hard-hitting truths. Read them and change your life
like he changed mine. Read them and build yourself a
business that just doesn’t pay the bills for a month, build
yourself a business that pay the bills for a lifetime.
Questions to Ponder
Bonus: 25 Questions You Need To
Answer To Kick Your Life Straight!
1l- What dream did you have as a youngster? And are you
still pursuing it?
2- If that dream is dead, why?
3- Has your dream deteriorated from fantastic achievement
and aspiration to survival and comfort?
4- What beliefs, biases, and prejudices are stopping you
from advancing on your dream? Where did they come from?
Fact? Upbringing? Church? Education?
5- How do you define wealth? Fancy consumer goods and
image? Freedom? Meaningful work?
6- Have material goods and consumption (including their
debt) ravaged your ability to take risks? Your ability to focus
on your dream?
7- Are your parents or other authority figures mandating a
certain course of action for your life, even though it doesn’t
resonate with your heart or soul?
8- What is your purpose in life? What gives you meaning?
9- Is mediocre comfort or a specific lifestyle (a decent car,
Netflix, a weekend of partying) your purpose? If so, how
does this impact your motivation? Your willingness to take
risks?
10- Think of the last time you felt empowered... what were
the circumstances?
11- What moments in your life do you regret? Is there a
moment converging on you now, this week, or this month,
that you will regret forever?
12- How do you react to change in culture and society? Is it
something to resist, an inconvenience and a hindrance? Or
as an opportunity?
13- What kind of math is working in your life? Is this math
conducive to creating wealth, or apt to keep you mired in
mediocrity?
14- If you're pursuing an idea, or thinking of one, what
kind of math does it introduce into your life? Are these
figures (physics) conducive to creating a fortune? Or just
getting by?
15- Assuming your paycheck paces inflation, what is the
most you can earn over the next ten years? Until retirement
age? How much of these earnings can you reasonably save?
10% 30%? Are these numbers likened to set you free young,
or make you rich old?
16- If you saved 10% of your current salary per year and
never lost your job, how many years (X) would it take you to
become a millionaire? After that time, how much would a
million dollars be worth? Would it buy a house? Or just a
car?
17- If you sold 100,000 items at a $50 profit each, how
much money would you have earned? Can you do that in 1
decade? 1 year? 1 month? What would mark the limits of
income growth and/or sustainability?
18- Are there any systems in your life that are working on
your behalf to earn not only money, but also time? If not,
why? What do you need to start doing TODAY to change
this?
19- If you earned 5% annually on $10,000,000, how much
would you earn per month? What kind of life could you lead
at that amount? What kind of work would you do, if any?
20- How do you view luck? As a function of probability and
effort injected into the system? Or as a function of fluke
randomness? If you flipped a coin, what is the probability
you can call it correctly? What if you had three chances to
call a coin flip correctly, how would the probability change?
Does luck exist in these scenarios, or only probability?
21- How many ideas have you come up with only to see that
executed dea in the marketplace months, or years later?
What stopped you from doing something?
22- How do you value ideas? Something worth millions and
in desperate need of protection? Or as a mere thought-
pattern that requires a commitment behind it to make real?
23- If you had a net worth of $90 million dollars, what
would your “retirement” look like? After you bought
everything you wanted and traveled the world, what would
you be doing for work? Charity? More business?
24- Do you have a successful mentor in your life?
Someone who can give you the “tough love” no-holds-
barred truth about what it takes to succeed?
25- If not, do you want one?
The Millionaire Fastlane
By MJ DeMarco
Crack the Code to Wealth And Live Rich
for a Lifetime
The Millionaire Fastlane - Preface
THE “LAMBORGHINI PROPHECY”
COMPLETES
The Millionaire Fastlane is the echo of a chance encounter |
had long ago when | was a pudgy teenager. It was a
Fastlane spark of awareness, an enlightenment triggered by
a stranger driving a mythic car—a Lamborghini Countach.
The Fastlane was born, and with it the belief and resolution
that wealth need not take 50 years of financial mediocrity
devoured by decades of work, decades of saving, decades
of mindless frugality, and decades of 8% stock market
returns.
Often, this book references the Lamborghini brand, and it
isn’t to brag to say I’ve owned a few. The Lamborghini icon
represents the fulfillment of a prophecy in my life. It
innocently began when | saw my first Lamborghini and it
kicked my ass out of my comfort zone. | confronted its
young owner and asked a simple question: “How can you
afford such an awesome car?”
The answer | received, unveiled in Chapter 2, was short
and powerful, but | wish | had more. | wish that young man
had taken an hour, a day, or a week to talk to me. | wish
that stranger would have mentored me on how to get what |
thought the Lamborghini represented: wealth.
| wish that man had reached into his car and given me a
book.
Years later, | would relive that same moment in role
reversal. To celebrate my blossoming Fastlane success, |
bought my first exotic car—a legendary beast known as a
Lamborghini Diablo. If you’ve never had the opportunity to
drive a car that
costs more than most people’s homes, let me tell you how it
works: You can’t be shy. People chase you in traffic. They
tailgate, rubberneck, and cause accidents. Getting gas is an
event: people snap photos, enraged environmentalists
throw you an evil eye, and haters speculate about the
length of your penis—as if owning a Hyunda implies being
well endowed. Mostly, people ask questions. The most
frequent questions come from leering and_ inquisitive
teenagers, as | waS many years ago: “Wow, how can you
afford one of these?” or “What do you do?”
People associate Lamborghinis with wealth, and while
that’s an illusion (any dimwit can finance a ridiculously
expensive car), it’s indicative of a dream lifestyle that most
people conceive as incomprehensible.
Now when | hear the same question | asked decades ago,
| have the power to gift a book and perhaps, to gift a
dream...
This book Is my Official answer.
Unscripted
By MJ) DeMarco
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of
Entreoreneurship
Unscripted: Introduction
Life.
Liberty.
And the pursuit of entrepreneurship.
It’s awaking in the morning and pinching yourself black-
and-blue—that OMG, this is my life, and it’s freaking
awesome. You live in your dream house, but there’s no
mortgage. No alarm clock, no boss, no bills. No claims on
the day’s time other than what you choose. It’s making
more money before breakfast than you made for an entire
week at your last job. It’s a crazy expensive car parked in
your garage, a victorious symbol that your dreams no longer
Sleep in fantasies, but are awake with reality.
Make no mistake, this life exists.
| know, because it’s been mine for more than twenty
years. And in a few short years, it can be yours as well.
That’s right, you won’t need five decades of thankless jobs,
mind-numbing frugality, and patient investing with our
trusted friends on Wall Street.
Unfortunately, you’ve been SCRIPTED to believe that
such a life is out of your reach, or only possible for a certain
type of person... someone with a certain college degree, a
certain amount of VC funding, or a certain contact list of
connected friends from Stanford. I’m here to tell you, that
none of it’s true.
While I’ve been an entrepreneur most of my life, I’m no
one special. You won’t read about me over at Tech Crunch or
in some Silicon Valley newsletter. While I’ve been an
Internet entrepreneur since the old “you’ve got mail” AOL
days, I’ve never been funded by venture capitalists, never
had a payroll with more than five people on it, and never
studied computer science at school. Despite this, I’ve been
able to create profitable businesses that create the type of
UNSCRIPTED life I’ve described above. We’re talking about
five- and six-figure monthly profits with valuations in the
millions. Although I’ve had two successful “exits”, don’t let
that scare you; it’s just a welcome (and sometimes
unexpected) side effect of the process.
Now, you probably noticed this book is LONG. | mean like,
Super long. There’s a reason for this. I’m not one of these
“book a month” authors who writes about a_ trendy
marketing tactic that becomes ineffectively overused within
a year.
I’m not an author who writes 200 pages of filler about
One concept when only four paragraphs are enough. In
other words, | didn’t spend three years writing this book to
enlarge my income streams—|I wrote it to change your life.
And in order to change your life, a lot needs to be said. Yes,
this goes beyond starting a business and making some side
cash— it’s about reclaiming life-and-liberty through the
pursuit of entrepreneurship.
If you don’t know, let me break it to you: Slavery still
exists. Except today’s contemporary slavery is called the
SCRIPT—an implied social contract whereas a gilded cage
is exchanged for voluntary indebtedness and lifelong toil, a
price sacrificed by a non-redeemable fifty-years of Monday
through Friday, an invisible servitude in which freedom is
only promised by the arrival of life’s fading twilight.
UNSCRIPTED is your blueprint into an awakening of
abundance, freedom, and happiness; a keystone to
unleashing a life few dream of.
In Part 1, | will identify the problem that has haunted
you since you’ve been old enough to have a job. You
have sensed it, felt it, and now, you fear you’re living it.
In Part 2, | will expose the greatest con of the century
and detail exactly how it has stolen your dreams, and if
you allow it, it will steal your life. To defeat a thief, you
have to understand the thief.
In Part 3, | will unveil the high-definition vision of
what Is possible once your mind ts free from the cultural
doctrines ruling the game.
In Part 4, the bulk of this book, | will reveal the
definitive blueprint to UNSCRIPTED Entrepreneurship, a
detailed framework that shows you how to start a
business that goes beyond just the bill-paying treadmill,
it breaks it— and then it changes your life forever.
In Part 5, | will detail the greatest passive income
system in existence where work becomes optional. Yup,
you will learn how to never work another day in your
life, where to find it, and how to get started
immediately.
If you haven’t read my debut book, The Millionaire
Fastlane, don’t worry. UNSCRIPTED stands alone. | wouldn’t
have published it if | didn’t think it could change lives.
Question is, will you allow it to change yours?
First, if you have a great job, a chummy relationship with
your boss, and are just thrilled with your 401(k),
congratulations. | give you mad props. You’re winning a
rigged game. You’re that dude who wins the giant stuffed
elephant at the traveling carnival. How you tossed those
plastic rings around the beer bottles, I'll never know.
However, in light of your superpowers, this book probably
isn’t for you.
Second, | don’t believe you can change your life by
reading another “financial freedom” book that worships
IRAs, stock-market investing, and soul-suffocating frugality.
Do you really want to read another biblical-sized lecture
idolizing the compound-interest fantasy? Hit Amazon and
you'll find ten gazillion books on such crap. This book’s title
is UNSCRIPTED, not “be like fucking everyone else on the
planet.”
Third, UNSCRIPTED is for you if your life has become
hopeless and dissatisfying. It’s for you if you’re held hostage
by a weekday and the bribery of its paycheck. If you’re sick
of the suck, and tired of the tiresome: the break-room
gossip, the organizational politics, the managerial ass-
kissing, and whatever else boils when multiple human
beings are tossed in a box and tasked with corporate
minutia, | have your escape.
UNSCRIPTED is for you if you crave autonomy and the
creative license to pursue work that matters. It’s for you if
you're a youngster who'd rather live richly young—travel,
nice cars, free time—versus waiting to live richly old:
wheelchairs, arthritis, and bridge. It’s for you if you have X-
ray vision and can see what your parents cannot—that life’s
formulaic template has become dated and flawed.
But most importantly, UNSCRIPTED is for you if you’ve
been an aspiring entrepreneur far too long, someone who
can’t turn a corner, turn a break, or turn a profit. Someone
who might already own a business, but like a job, it steals
time and just barely keeps the bills paid until next month. If
you’re someone who would rather hear the discomforting
truths from a multimillionaire over another broke blogger
peddling in fantasies and narcissistic feel-good platitudes, |
have your escape.
Finally, UNSCRIPTED is for you if you’re willing to risk
changing yourself. Everyone wants to change, but few want
to change their choices. This book will be tough because life
is tough. Uncomfortable truths, belief challenges, and ego-
shattering revelations lie ahead.
Some will assign UNSCRIPTED’s blunt and insulting tone
to themselves and miss the point entirely. If you think I’m a
rude, politically incorrect asshole, please, return to your safe
Space and ask for a refund. Your opinion changes nothing
about my reality, but I’m hoping mine changes yours.
| didn’t write UNSCRIPTED to coddle and protect the
status quo that killed your dreams for a damn job and a nice
weekend with Netflix. Disruptive change doesn’t come from
some mental masturbation that sparks one day and flames-
out the next—it comes from the depths of your heart and
soul. If you’re open to the red pill, | have your escape.
So, if | haven’t been clear, let me be now: UNSCRIPTED
is not something you try, it’s something you live.
If you’re ready for the challenge, get ready for a shit-
your-pants revelation that everything you’ve been taught
and told is bullshit.
Legendary bullshit.
We’re talking stuff that would make Ponzi feel out-
scammed and out-lied. Don’t be mistaken, UNSCRIPTED is
NOT about paradigm shifts. | hate that phrase. A paradigm
shit doesn’t keep a sinking Titanic afloat. The problem is the
paradigm itself. The problem is that you’ve allowed the
paradigm to set the rules, call the shots, and dictate the
decisions.
The problem is, you’ve allowed ordinary thinking
preached by ordinary people to produce exactly that—an
ordinary life.
The paradigm shift is realizing that the paradigm Is shit.
Unscripted Chapter 1: Tales from the
SCRIPT: A Monday Story
How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6:30am by an
alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss,brush teeth and
hair, and ght traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of
money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the
opportunity to do so?
~ Charles Bukowski, Author
SAME SHIT, DIFFERENT DAY
ttt IE ee er
{{{{t{ OO Ftdt}
{{{{{ OO F}dh}
{{{{{ OOF}
Shit.
It’s Monday morning, 5:15 a.m.
For the third time, my _ iPhone is_ cursing its
alarmNickelback song | once loved, but now hate. Another
snooze and I'll be late.
Yes, it’s time to wake up. After cursing myself for not
changing that damn song to something by Metallica, | yank
myself out of bed, slightly hungover from the night before. |
dread the day—actually no, the week—to come. Needing a
jump start, | stumble into the shower, hoping for a clean
perspective. No luck. The forthcoming day rivals getting a
colonoscopy. As | lynch-tie my neck and arm my suit, regret
and resignation
ravage my soul. Something is not right.
Perhaps it’s the $800 suit. Perhaps it’s the credit card
that paid for the suit. Perhaps it’s the stinking realization
that my weekend highlight was watching two mediocre
football teams play in the Las Vegas Bowl. Perhaps it’s the
morning darkness and the stark reality that my _ short
Cancun vacation is still months away. Unfortunately, this is
no time for a Jesus moment. With moments to eat, | grab an
artificially colored bowl of sugar-coated grain.
With one eye on the clock and another on the meal plan
pinned to the refrigerator— the one I’m supposed to follow
religiously for the next eight weeks—I! blame Toucan Sam for
my first transgression.
Minutes later, | lumber to the driveway and wriggle into
my car, sealing myself in the frigid cabin.
My breath shivers a cloud.
“Ugh,” | groan.
Even my new Mercedes C-Class and its sixty-seven
payments remaining has lost its luster. | back out of my
driveway and head to the freeway.
For the next hour, | sit trapped, fender-to-bumper in my
little box, with thousands of other people like me. What |
don’t know is that my fellow commuters, some appearing
more successful than I, are not happy either. Like me,
they’ve failed their diets, failed their purpose, and failed
their dreams. As a result, they’ve bribed their misery with
more expensive boxes adorned with softer leather, shinier
chrome, and fancier gadgets—boxes branded by prestigious
insignia such as Lexus, Audi, and BMW. Their mission, like
mine, is appeasement: to bribe themselves into believing
that they are different from the other 20,000 souls enslaved
by the same paradigm imprisoning me.
Two miles and twenty minutes less from my life, | have to
ask myself: /s a sheep who drives a Mercedes to the
slaughterhouse still a sheep?
Another hour drains before | arrive at my workplace
where | pay seven bucks for the privilege to park near my
building, a towering glass skyscraper that ironically, pierces
the sky like a crystal dagger.
As the orderly mob herds into the atrium, solemn yet
caffeinated, | begin my day with a lie. “Good morning,” |
greet the receptionist as | rush into a crowded elevator.
As | ascend to the sixtieth floor with my fellow inmates, |
have seconds to meditate: “For the love of God, why can’t it
be Friday?”
No time for fantasies, the doors slide open where
purgatory awaits—a colossal vista featuring dozens of
paneled cubes segregated into cells. Like a prison, each cell
is customized to its occupant and decorated with family
photos, knick-knacks engraved with biblical proverbs and
unheeded platitudes, or an occasional art project from a
child, yet to be cursed.
Quickly, | lipstick the pig: “OK, at least | have a job.” It’s a
nice try, but | can’t hoodwink my heart; gratitude shouldn’t
feel like death row at San Quentin.
| arrive at my cube, | floor my satchel, and thunk to my
seat.
Odd.
Manny, my cubicle neighbor who starts his day an hour
earlier than I, has not arrived. In fact, his desk has been
wiped clean.
Then | see it.
Sitting atop my _ inbox and ominously stamped
CONFIDETIAL is a large manila envelope from corporate.
Shit, this can’t be good. The last “condential” love letter |
received doubled my health insurance costs because
Congress passed some fucked-up law that no one bothered
to read.
| dreadfully tear open the envelope. Apparently Manny
was red this morning for not doing his job. Well, actually his
job was being done, just not by him. Supposedly, Manny
deviously outsourced his duties to IT workers in China,
allowing him to surf Reddit and watch funny cat videos all
day. The clandestine operation scammed for months.
According to the corporate dispatch, Manny was “let go”
and his work temporarily offloaded to me. Company
courtesy reads like an offer from Don Corleone: My work will
expand one hour per day and one Saturday a month for the
next three months—for the same exact pay. OMFG. And no,
they’re not kidding.
Suddenly, | feel a scene from Star Wars involving a trash
compactor. The air thins and my eyes gloss over as a
suffocating cloud forms above Cubicle 129A. | clench my
teeth so tight that my capped molar breaks in half; at least
my dentist will be happy. Rage follows. Then bitterness and
betrayal. I’m not sure who I'd like to strangle: my boss, my
coworker, or myself.
WTF has my life become?
Is this why I went to college for five years?
This wasn’t my plan!
As | pout like a child without my lollipop, temporary
insanity gives way to functional logic: Grin and bear it. I’m
trapped. | can’t quit. | have bills—credit cards, a mortgage,
a fancy car, student loans to the tune of 50G—and no
savings. And then there’s Amanda—my uptown, uptight
girlfriend who demanded an engagement ring six months
ago. Throw i a biological clock ticking at warp speed and our
relationship is like riding the bumper cars at the county fair.
“This is everything,” | reason. “Without it, I’m shitting bricks
without a diaper.”
For the next four hours, | sit in my cube, poking into my
computer, suffering though the minutiae of purchase orders,
past-due invoices, and IERs—internal escalation reports—
the corporate world’s version of schoolyard demerits.
As my day drags on and | realize four more days of this
insufferable hell awaits, and half my Saturday, | stomach a
depressing truth: My dreams are dead. The consolation prize
for them has become a car and a weekend.
For the rest of my day, | slag through work, eyeballing
the clock like a dog salivating for a bone. Tick by tick,
minute by minute, the clock widens the incongruence
gnawing at my brain. With each passing, a part of my soul
dies. And yet each moves me closer to the day’s freedom.
Ten hours earlier, time ordered me awake, and now, time
orders me to leave. | hop back into my car, joining the
others who endured a similar soul-destroying day. I’m
relieved it’s over and a lifeboat awaits: It’s Monday, and
Monday means NFL Football. | crack the day’s first smile,
one that disappears seven minutes later. There’s an
accident on the I-90 freeway and | won’t be home for
another two hours. And I'll miss most of the game.
At home, defeated and demoralized, | drop-kick myself to
the couch and crack open a cold Budweiser. It tastes like
chilled piss. One sip and it’s clear: don’t use a butter knife
when a chainsaw is needed. Four shots of Jack Daniels later
and it’s
mission accomplished. The room is spinning. I’m lost to the
television and catch the nal ten minutes of the
Steelers/Broncos game—a blowout not worth watching.
Channel flipping through alternate realities, | pay
homage to the television: | can anonymously watch the lives
of those suffering the same doldrums as me or interestingly,
those who have been lucky and escaped it.
As | toast the death of my dreams, a Law and Order rerun
gives way to an infomercial narrated by an overexcited dude
with a bad British accent. He’s selling a fat-squashing
Spandex compression girdle. Apparently, ten-years of
custard donuts has a ten-second fix, assuming you don’t get
naked with the fool you fooled.
As the hucksters and their “fat-choking bustier” bellow
on, | slowly fade and pass out—not into a deep sleep but a
Shallow oblivion void of rejuvenation. Hours seem like
minutes, abruptly shattered by a morning noise...
{{{{{ OO Fttt}
{{{{{ OO dtth
itt. BE
{{{{{ OOF}
Shit! Shit! Shit!
It’s time to do this again...
About The Author
Mj DeMarco
M)] DeMarco is a semi-retired entrepreneur, investor, advisor,
and international best-selling author who’s books have been
translated in over 15 languages worldwide. He is the current
founder of Viperion Publishing Corp., a media company
focused on online and print content distribution. He also is
admin/founder for The Fastlane Forum, the web’s leading
destination forum for start-up, finance, and entrepreneurial
business discussions, now featuring over 60,000 users and
nearly 1,000,000 comments.
Prior to embarking into the world of writing and authorship,
he was the former start-up Founder/CEO of Limos.com
(1997-2007), a global ground transportation aggregator and
marketplace that he successfully built and grew into a
profitable multi-million dollar company, all with no money,
no formal training, and with just a few employees. In 2001,
he sold the company in an exit event but later reacquired
the company via bankruptcy reorganization. He later sold
the company again in 2007 to a Phoenix-based private
equity company.
By refusing to accept society's default template for
mediocrity (THE SCRIPT: jobs, 401(k)s, frugality, give your
life savings to Wall-Street) MJ was able to retire young in his
thirties without sacrificing the good life. Yes, that means he
isn’t playing Wall-Street's “hope, wait, and pray” game
where you nervously invest all your savings into the stock
market, all while commiserating over the Starbucks you
couldn’t drink because saving $4.12 was more important.
(Do people seriously believe that sh*t?)
Currently, MJ owns a publishing company which produces,
distributes, and licenses his work around the world while
contributing daily to his business community. He lives in
Fountain Hills Arizona and enjoys road trips, softball, travel,
fitness and nutrition, working out, and recklessly exploring
the Sonoran desert on his UTV.
Books By This Author
The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack The
Code To Wealth and Live Rich For A
Lifetime
Has the "Settle-for-less" financial plan become your plan for
wealth? It sounds a little something like this:
"Graduate from college, get a good job, save 10% of your
paycheck, cancel the movie channels, quit drinking
expensive Starbucks, save and penny-pinch your life away,
trust your life-savings to an indexed-fund peddled from Wall
Street, and then one day, when you are oh, say, 65 years
old, you can retire rich.”
Welcome to the greatest scam of the modern world, one
that will take you 50 years of your youth to realize that you
were conned. You don’t want to DIE rich in life’s tired
twilight, you want to LIVE rich in vibrant youth.
Unfortunately, since you were old enough to work a job,
you've been lied to by an army of financial profiteers and
mainstream media hucksters. The ruse? The reckless idea
that TIME can create wealth through patient investing with
the most untrusted people on the planet... Wall Street.
That’s right, invest in an indexed-fund for 50 years while
blindly trusting the uncontrollable and unpredictable
markets: the housing market, the stock market, and the job
market.
| call this soul-sapping, dream-stealing dogma "The
Slowlane" - an impotent financial gamble that dubiously
promises wealth in a wheelchair. Accept the Slowlane as
your financial roadmap and your future will blow carelessly
adrift on a sailboat of HOPE: HOPE you can get a job and
keep it, HOPE the stock market doesn't crash, HOPE the
economy stays solvent, HOPE, HOPE, and HOPE. Is HOPE
really a solid centerpiece for family's financial plan?
Drive the Slowlane and you will find your life deteriorate into
a miserable exhibition about what you cannot do, versus
what you can.
If you refuse the lifetime subscription to mediocrity, penny-
pinching, and “waiting to retire so | can finally enjoy life”
there's an alternative; an expressway to extraordinary
wealth capable of burning a trail to financial independence
faster than any road out there. And shockingly, this road has
nothing to do with the Wall Street, jobs, 401(k)s, index-
funds, or a mindless regimen of frugality.
Demand more. Change lanes and create your explosive
wealth accelerator. Hit the Fastlane, crack wealth’s code,
and live rich for a lifetime. Over 500,000 copies sold,
translated in over 15 languages worldwide.
Unscripted: Life, Liberty, and the
Pursuit of Entrepreneurship
What If Life Wasn’t About Paying Bills,
Working FOR a weekend, and Then Dying?
Tired of sleepwalking through a mediocre life bribed by
mindless video gaming, redemptive weekends, and a scant
paycheck from aé_ soul-suffocating job? Welcome to the
SCRIPTED club—where membership is neither perceived or
consented.
The fact is, ever since you’ve been old enough to sit
Obediently in a classroom, you have been culturally
engineered for servitude, unwittingly enslaved into a
Machiavellian system where’ presumptive rules’ go
unchallenged, sanctified traditions go unquestioned, and
lifelong dreams go unfulfilled. As a result, life is hijacked and
marginalized into debt, despair, and dependence. Fun fades.
Dreams die. Your life’s consolation prize becomes a car and
a weekend.
Recapture what is yours and make aé revolutionary
repossession of life-and-liberty’s reins through the pursuit of
ENTREPRENEURSHIP. Paradigm shift? Heck, the paradigm
doesn’t need a damn shift—it needs to be thrown-out
altogether.
UNSCRIPTED shows you how to rewrite life’s dream-killing
script. Ditch the job, flick Wall-Street the bird, and escape
the insanity of trading your life away for a paycheck and an
elderly promise called retirement. UNSCRIPT today and lead
life—instead of life leading you.
Praise For Author
Disregard the questionable title, The Millionaire Fastlane
is the real deal. | bought the book when | was 18 years old
and at the time | was essentially stuck in a dead-end job at
a call center. Today, just short of six years later, I’m a
millionaire via multi-family real-estate investments and a
growing eCommerce company potentially worth millions.
TMF gave me the mindset shift, the mathematics to
implement, and the framework to follow that | haven't seen
anywhere else. Read it and weep with joy.
- Roc Pilon, CEO/RP Ventures
There are few books that have touched, moved and
inspired me as much as The Millionaire Fastlane. It has
crystallized my thought processes in building, developing
and implementing that ‘ formula’ in my businesses and in
life as a whole. It has also helped me in formulating AND
creating multiple scalable revenue streams to the tune of
nearly $2 million a year and growing. All without any formal
education and a C student in high school. It isn’t easy, but it
is simple.”
- R. Rude, Springfield Missouri (Business Owner)
| simply do not have words in my lexicon that are able to
accurately reflect how invaluable this book ts. In fact, | really
debated whether | should give this book 5-stars (because it
is the single greatest book on the topic | have ever read by
far)...or whether to rate it 1-star (based on a selfish desire to
keep this information a secret).
| have read over 20 books on entrepreneurship in the last 6
months and they all read the same. When | purchased
DeMarco's book, | was fed up with business self-help books,
but had to see what was causing people to leave such
stellar reviews. That one decision will be remembered as the
moment that changed my life. | was wrong...! was thinking
wrong, acting wrong, choosing wrong...and | had no idea! |
had no idea how utterly and completely wrong my
perception of entrepreneurship and life in general was until |
read this book.
After my realization, | looked around and realized...98% of
people have it wrong, too! There is absolutely a secret (or, a
bunch of them) that will put you on the path to a fulfilling
life that you build yourself...and it is ALL in this book. | was
honestly shocked that someone would be willing to invest
the time and energy to share this information with others;
he could have quite easily sat back and enjoyed his own life,
leaving the rest of us in the dark. | am beyond grateful for
the time, effort and care that went into this book. M/
DeMarco gets it, and thanks to this book, now | get it, too.
- Amazon User [Lexi, OCT 2017)
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